A Man to Call Brother
by Yidkirkin
Summary: There aren't a lot of ESPers in the world -certainly not enough to start a community group or anything. So the fact that Shigeo was alone most of his childhood is to be expected. But Psychics are a bit more common, and when Kei comes to town and accidentally bumps into Shigeo, he feels responsible for getting the kid up to snuff and more comfortable with his powers.
1. Chapter 1

**A Man To Call Brother**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

THIS IS A NO INCEST OR PEDOPHILIA ZONE. NOT KEIMOB AND NO REIMOB OR MOBRITSU TOLERATED.

SPOILERS

Himekawa Kei was fifteen when he first met Kageyama Shigeo, and in a bitterly foul mood besides.

It hadn't even been a week since Kawachi Tesshou of the Armament had kicked his ass and shook up Kei's entire mindset with a few short sentences –obviously, he wasn't about to actually go and seek him out like the man had suggested, but he didn't want Kenshou or Kenichirou to see him licking his wounds like this either. So he had feigned a family emergency and fled in shame, and a few days later was still wandering the opposite side of Seasoning City to try and cool off, bored out of his goddamn mind.

Being so idle, he itched for a way to release his pent up tension –his mother didn't like him fighting, but sometimes he just got so caught up in his frustration that he didn't care. Usually he had his two best friends around to hold him back if he needed it, but with how wound up he was today he knew that no one he went up against would come out unscathed, with how far he could sometimes take it while caught up in the fervour of fighting.

But when a few hours went by and it was getting close to dinnertime, he was about ready to give up on working out his aggression when an oddly sharp yell came out of the alley just ahead of him. At first his mind supplied that it might be a scuffle between the local gangs –he wasn't too familiar with the power structures outside of Toarushi, but it seemed the most likely. He raised his shoulders against the cold and made a few quick strides intending to walk right past, not wanting to get involved if it really was some local issue. What he came across instead was not what he expected, and the sight of a couple of kids being ganged up on by some high schoolers was enough to make his fragile grasp on himself snap in two.

Only, he paused briefly just before he intervened –something was wrong. There was a crumpled form further down the alley in the same uniform, and as he watched one of the teens that had been about to grab the kid was sent flying down the alley with a shriek. There was a feeling to the air around the bigger of the two young kids, some black, ominous energy that made the hairs on Kei's neck stand up from more than just the cold. The teenagers seemed to hesitate then, and the kid –who was standing over someone probably unconscious –jerked and keened a little in fright, seemed to be struggling with himself. The brief reprieve was enough to make Kei decide to intervene even though this would probably be resolved without him.

The older teens didn't even have the time to react before Kei was swinging his foot into the nearest guy's head, sending him crashing against the opposite wall of the alley and into an unconscious heap on the ground. Kei had forgotten his favourite knife at home that morning, but he didn't miss it as he embraced his less than civil side and practically destroyed the other three within minutes –the injuries that bastard Kawachi gave him never even slowing him down.

It was only once he stood back up and surveyed the damage he caused that he remembered why he snapped, and he turned quickly to see that the kids he'd helped out weren't even looking at him, one shadowed against the wall and the other as still as the grave. The one who was standing was probably in elementary school –with a black bowl cut and big black school backpack –and the other one looked like he could've been related, blood staining his forehead notwithstanding. When Kei moved slightly to shake out his fist, the kid flinched and a few rocks near him started to float, so Kei raised his hands peaceably and kept still.

"Oi, you-" Kei winced at his own tone and cut himself off before he could make it seem like he was just another guy there to pick on them. "You alright, kid?"

The kid jerked again, the rocks floating higher in preparation of defence, and so Kei took a quick step back. Something about the distance must have triggered a reflex, because the rocks slowly lowered back to the ground and the kid lost the menacing edge to his being –he blinked at him in confused apprehension, and then his eyes flicked to the high schoolers Kei had demolished and then back up to Kei again. "H-Huh?" he asked, confused, tears forming in his eyes as he refocused on the kid at his feet again –shit, that was actually kind of a lot of blood. "Oh, oh, no, R-Ritsu... Ritsu!"

Kei knelt down so he was closer to their level but didn't go any closer, not wanting to spook the kid any further. "Can I look at him? Head wounds bleed a lot but that don't always mean they're bad," the kid made a little distressed noise and Kei's brain whirred in an attempt to salvage this situation. "I'm Kei, what's your name, kid?"

"...Sh-Shigeo," he said, shoulders un-tensing slightly. "But –But lots of people call me Mob."

_Mob? Oof, this kid sounds like he gets bullied a lot... _"Shigeo-kun, then. I'm not gonna hurt you like those shitbirds, I just wanna make sure Ritsu-kun's okay. Can I take a look at him?"

The kid visibly deliberated on Kei's terms, and so Kei waited patiently for his verdict. For obvious reasons he wasn't one to get the police involved, but if Shigeo wouldn't let him check on his brother then he might just have to. But after a minute Shigeo nodded nervously, and kept a watchful eye on Kei's every move once he shuffled closer to take a look.

Kei gently poked at the injury, and then tugged his bandana out from around his neck and used it to wipe the red away enough to see what was underneath. When it turned out to just be a bad scrape he breathed a sigh of relief and folded the kerchief thinly so he could tie it around Ritsu's head and stop it from getting further exposed to anything gross. The whole time Shigeo was in the corner of his vision, fretting silently and restraining himself from interfering –he was probably still worried that Kei was going to turn on them any second.

"He'll be fine, it's just a scrape," Kei attempted to be reassuring, but he floundered a little even still; it wasn't exactly his expertise in the grand scheme of things. All his life he had only really been good at fighting, and that didn't lend itself well to stellar self-care or whatever bullshit. "He probably fainted from fright more than anything."

"Really?" Shigeo asked, and he looked so fucking tiny and scared in that moment that Kei actually found himself thinking, _I can't fuck this up. _

"Really," Kei confirmed, thrown off by that sudden thought. "Now, we can do one of three things next, Shigeo-kun," he waited for Shigeo to nod, deciding to ignore the nervousness creeping back into the kid's shoulders. "I can call the police and let them escort you home, then I'll just fuck off. I can take you and Ritsu-kun back home myself, and explain to your parents what those shitbirds were tryin' to do. Or, I can take you to a convenience store for a snack to calm you down, and then take you and Ritsu-kun back home. What do you say?"

"Oh, um, uh..." Shigeo stuttered, somehow more flustered than when he thought his brother was seriously hurt. "Only one of, uh, hm..." Shigeo's brow creased and he looked deep in concentration for a minute. "Could you, uhm, well, not the first one... maybe..."

Kei wondered how often Shigeo had to choose how things went during a day. "Hm... I dunno, someone seems _awfully _calm, like he couldn't _possibly_ need a drink or a chocolate bar or something before going home... I guess if he really doesn't need it I can go by my lonesome..." Kei peered at Shigeo out of the corner of his eye and noted a hesitant giggle that the kid let out, which he decided he was going to count as a victory. "I guess I'll just be alone, no one to keep me company, no one to walk with..."

"Um, o-okay, I guess we can go! If Ritsu's really okay," Shigeo piped up, and then hastily amended himself. Kei nodded, and with one smooth but quick motion he stooped down and pulled Ritsu up and into a piggy-back carry. Shigeo stood up with him and anxiously helped Kei adjust Ritsu's position until they could walk alright with such a set up.

"He'll be fine, now let's go before it gets too late," Kei nodded in the direction of the street, and when Shigeo grabbed the end of his jacket he almost felt annoyed for a split second, before he noticed how the kid was looking around and pressing into Kei's side like he was expecting to get jumped any second. _Fuck those guys, man, _Kei thought at the gaggle of teens they left behind. _I'm a fucking shitty person and even I wouldn't go after primary schoolers._

"Which way's your house, Shigeo-kun?" Kei asked, and turned in that direction easily, already knowing which corner store they would go into. He had a passing acquaintance with the cashiers and the place had a few tables where he could set Ritsu down for a moment while he paid, and more importantly, it would be _warm._ Shigeo kept stuck to his side like glue, one hand clenched in the leather of his jacket and the other in Ritsu's pant leg, and Kei couldn't blame him.

The cashier was indeed one of the ones he knew, and so Kei was at ease with lying Ritsu down on the one of the table benches nearby while Shigeo made a beeline for the drink coolers in the back. To his credit, Shigeo didn't dawdle –he grabbed a carton of milk and patiently waited for Kei to get his energy drink, and then he patiently waited at the table with Ritsu while Kei paid for everything, including a square bandaid for Ritsu's head in place of his bandana. As soon as Kei sat down though, Shigeo drank half the carton in one go, and Kei almost snorted his own drink out of his nose at the impressive moustache the kid was left with afterward.

"Here, napkin," Kei said, pointing at his own lip and making Shigeo blush deep red as he wiped it off. They sat in silence for a minute or two until Shigeo began to fidget like he wanted to say something, and Kei waited until he was ready to speak.

"Uhm, I..." Shigeo hesitated. "Th-Thank you, for helping us. Thank you."

"Don't mind, Shigeo-kun," Kei said, and he found, oddly, that he actually meant it. "Shitbirds who pick on kids deserve a kick where it hurts."

"...the shin?" Shigeo asked obliviously, making Kei snort again.

They finished their drinks quickly –Ritsu may not be bleeding out, but it would be better to get him home sooner rather than later. By now Kei was pretty sure the two of them were either siblings or cousins, and that was probably for the best given that he wasn't keen on carrying Ritsu more than he had to. Shigeo was slightly less wired on the way, and he even asked Kei a few questions as they walked, seemingly not as bothered by the cold as Kei was.

"Do you live near here?"

In fact, "I lived about ten blocks down, so probably further away than you," he had been wondering about the familiar buildings that kept cropping up here and there. He hadn't actually stayed in this part of Seasoning City for any longer than a month –they had moved here after his dad offed himself some years back –so it was no surprise that he never saw Shigeo around even if their homes were so close together. "I'm just visiting now, though. I live full time on the other side of Seasoning City."

"How did you get so strong?"

"Hah, flatterer," Kei joked. "I get into a lot of fights where I live now, and when you get into enough of them and you learn from them, you get better at them." Shigeo nodded seriously at that, like he was filing away the tidbit for later.

"What's your favourite drink?"

"Hm, _milk's_ pretty good..." Shigeo smiled shyly at that. "A cold Sapporo is alright, too, though not too many, 'cause then people –me included –get stupid. Don't drink too much alcohol once you're older, Shigeo-kun," Shigeo nodded frantically at that, assuring Kei that no, he definitely wouldn't be doing that at _all._ They walked a little farther in silence, before Shigeo again fidgeted in preparation of something.

"..._Why_ did you help us?"

Kei paused right in the middle of the sidewalk, and so did Shigeo. Kei really hadn't thought too hard about it –he had seen something he didn't like, so he intervened –but now that he looked back he guessed it was a little bit odd, that a guy who looked so much like the shitheads who ganged up on Shigeo would then turn around and help him out.

Back in Toarushi, a lot of guys talked about their senpais, or their sworn brothers, or their little bros, and Kei had only ever felt close to Kenshou and Kenichirou. He had never, ever known an older guy and liked him well enough to think of him like family, and the opposite held true, too –up to now, he had always sworn that he hated kids about as much as he hated his father's former 'employers'. But, he had undoubtedly seen Shigeo and Ritsu and felt protective of them, even if only from the immediate threat. Were these just some latent big bro instincts that were coming in?

"Because I've been there, before," Kei admitted before he could over-think it further. "And when I saw those guys I snapped. It's not complicated."

"...oh," Shigeo said very, very quietly, and they began walking again.

Unbidden, Kawachi's words came back to him in full force –_you might be skeptical about the world and think everyone around you is an enemy, but it's guys like you that make it look like that in the first place –_and even with the resulting flood of indignation that accompanied those words every time, Kei thought that maybe this kid and him were similar... in a manner of speaking.

He was ready to ask how old the younger boy actually _was_ when the front door of a house up ahead opened and a slightly pudgy woman maybe in her early thirties emerged, apron on and startling slightly when she noticed Kei and Shigeo standing a dozen feet away.

"Shigeo? What happened to Ritsu?" She asked, worry clearly overcoming her as she hurried forward. Shigeo shrunk in on himself slightly and looked away as Kei eased Ritsu off of his back and into the woman's arms.

"Uh... there were some mean high schoolers, Kaa-san, and they hit Ritsu kinda hard. K-Kei-aniki walked us back." Kei looked down at the top of Shigeo's head with a bit of surprise, wondering if he really wasn't going to mention the fact that he might not have needed Kei's help at all. "Kei-aniki said it's just a bad scrape. Are you making dinner soon?"

Shigeo's mother immediately looked relieved, obviously still worried over her youngest(?) but then glad that Shigeo didn't appear to have been hurt. "Oh, well at the very least you're safe now. And yes, I'm making Katsudon, Ritsu's favourite. Ah, Kei-kun was it?" She turned to look at him, and while what Kei expected still clouded her face, she didn't seem as affected as most other people. "Thank you for taking care of my sons."

"It's what anyone would do, Kageyama-san."

"Still, I appreciate you walking my Shigeo home, thank you again. Shigeo, can you grab the mail while I take Ritsu inside?" Shigeo nodded and in the next second the homely woman began to gingerly bring her youngest into the house –Shigeo was an odd shade of red and moved away from Kei to stand closer to the front gate.

"Th-Thank you again," he squeaked, bowing at the waist.

"Don't mind, maybe I'll see you around, eh?" Kei supplied in lieu of an awkward silence; Shigeo brightened up and nodded before closing the gate without another word, leaving Kei to huff in amusement and head home for the day.

Vvv

Kei had thought that would be the end of his interaction with the timid boy since he did not see either Shigeo or Ritsu throughout the remaining week of his self imposed exile. It wasn't that he _wasn't_ fond of the kid he had helped out, because he was. But he needed to do work around the house for his mother while he was here, especially after not having visited for nearly two months... and he did want to have a bit longer to stew on his defeat and try to _not_ think about punching Kawachi every time he crossed his mind. He likely would have forgotten about Shigeo completely after this brief visit home... if not for the fact that the day before he was due to leave he came across the kid again, this time with a brand new black eye and split lip.

Kei was heading back home from running to the grocery store for his mother when he nearly collided with Shigeo as the both of them turned a corner, neither paying much attention to their surroundings. For a split second he jumped to annoyance at the delay in his journey –but Shigeo only had to squeak in terror for a split second before Kei realized who he was facing and backed away fast so the kid wouldn't get the wrong idea. He was expecting a flinch, a greeting, maybe even for him to lash out –what he wasn't prepared for was the younger boy to freeze on the spot and look like he was trying to decide if he should turn tail and run.

"Shigeo-kun?" With how still he was standing, Kei could perfectly see the ugly black bruise that was already making his left eye swell and the blood stained spots on Shigeo's blue tshirt from his lip "Wha –who did this to you?"

After a moment, Shigeo lost much of his tension from the shock –and then gained it again when he started crying, trying to cradle his eye even with how fruitless the action was in the grand scheme. He had cried a bit the other day, but even then Kei could tell it was more from worry over his brother than anything else. This though, these sobs were coming from _terror_, a feeling Kei knew so well that he hadn't even noticed what he was doing before he had already picked up the scrawny kid and set off, ignoring Shigeo's squeak of surprise and how his tears intensified.

Kei didn't say a word as he stormed back to his home, and once they arrived it took him no time at all to deposit Shigeo on the kitchen counter, bring his mother a glass of juice before she came downstairs looking for it, and then dig the first aid kit out of the lower cupboard. Shigeo remained sitting stiffly throughout, face splotched with red and sniffling occasionally but once again blank and eerily quiet. He didn't even flinch when Kei moved his hand away from his eye (even when faced with one of Kei's worse scowls) and began applying ointment and whatnot to his injuries –he did, however, mumble out something that sounded suspiciously like an apology.

"Who the _fuck_ did this to you?" Kei asked again, blood boiling, and he wasn't even annoyed anymore at the fact that he'd gotten so attached to this kid in such a short amount of time, he just wanted to find out who it was and then _murder them._

"Uh... mm..." Shigeo briefly seemed like he was debating on not saying, but Kei kept scowling and he eventually gave in. "O-Onigawara-kun and Honda-kun, from the class above mine. He-he- it- y... you beat up Honda-kun's older brother the other day." Kei couldn't even get properly irate, because Shigeo was fast going back to his distressed state from earlier. "R-Ritsu won't t-talk to me _at all_ since then, and I tried to stay out of trouble like Kaa-san wanted, I did, b-but I was late leaving s-school and I _had_ to just l-let it happen or I'd _hurt_ someone!"

_Hurt someone? _Kei broke out of his anger in confusion at what that could mean –and then he remembered that eerie malevolence from then, and that by Shigeo's surety of its truth it must not have been the first time that that had happened. _Or this was the only time and it affected him so badly he's scared now_. "Why'd that shitbird of an older brother go after you in the first place?"

"...I dunno. He does it to other people." Shigeo mumbled, wiping at the eye that wasn't padded with gauze and visibly forced himself to calm down even further –Kei was quickly coming to his own conclusions about that. "H-He said he d-didn't like how Ritsu looked at him, a-and they took our New Year's money. And then Honda-kun said today that –that his brother had come home with a broken n-nose and... that-I-mustve-gotten-you-t-punch-im-'cause-even-with-psychic-powers-i-cant-do-anything-useful."

"That little shit! Like anyone could make me do something I didn't already decide to do." Kei seethed for a moment longer before trying his best to tone it down a little. "...are you hungry? Let me make something up while you calm down a bit more."

Shigeo hiccupped. "...y-you don't care that I'm... I'm, uhm..."

"An ESPer? Hell no," Kei snorted. "Seein' as how I'm a Psychic, sort of."

Shigeo's whole expression changed in that moment, from worried apprehension to something like amazement –and if Kei had been the only Psychic in the neighbourhood a few years ago, he suddenly realized that Shigeo must not have ever met anyone else like him since he'd left. After all, there weren't exactly youth groups for ESPers just around the corner, or a class on it at the community centre.

"You're Psychic?" Shigeo asked in a tiny voice. "B-But you beat up those older kids with your hands! And Honda-kun's older brother is on the baseball team, and there were four other of them!"

"I noticed. I'm Psychic, not an idiot. Remember I said I had to learn how to fight? Since my powers're useless –all they do is warp other people's perception of me and sometimes let me find people when I don't know where they are." Kei scuffed Shigeo's hair a bit. "You should see Toarushi sometime, that's the borough I live in way on the north end of the city –it's actually got a higher average for people with Psychic powers than anywhere else in Japan."

Shigeo was quiet and staring as Kei moved away and started rummaging around in the fridge, eventually settling on sandwiches for convenience sake. Kei glanced back at him a few times when it grew too silent to be natural, but Shigeo was off in his own little world and so he decided to leave him be. He only approached the younger boy once the sandwiches were actually finished, pressing a cold carton of milk against his elbow to break him out of his trance.

"There's chicken or beef, take your pick." Kei said, sitting across from Shigeo at the table. "...you aren't allergic to anything, are you?"

Shigeo shook his head and grabbed a beef sandwich, eating it subdued but steadily, while Kei took a bit less time to go through his own, making it to his second sandwich just as Shigeo was reaching the halfway point. They ate in a comfortable silence until Shigeo abruptly set his sandwich down and asked Kei a question.

"You're really strong, Kei-aniki. Honda-kun said that... since I'm an ESPer I'll always be weird and awkward, but –but you're Psychic and y-you're strong! Do you think..." Here Shigeo fidgeted anxiously and looked down to try and hide his face. "...I-I'm scared of my powers. They hurt people if I'm not careful, and I-I don't like that. Do you think I could ever learn to-to control them?"

A few things came into Kei's mind then; the first was the old, bone deep mourning for his father and yet even more so his anger _at _his father for killing himself so suddenly. Then the fury at the injustice of it all, the resentment towards those ESPers for focusing on their stupid goal and not the _people_ that actually made up their main force. He thought about the _slightly, _just _slightly _higher population of ESPers back in Toarushi and the lack of _that_ group and adequate police presence, the willingness to simply let the borough deal with its own since it ranked low for high profile crime, since it ranked low for the level of personal Psychic power, since it ranked low on their _priorities_.

Kawachi, a product of Toarushi with a power so suited for fighting and yet beating his ass without it, and telling him not to lose sight of what was important, and even though he _knew_ _that_ already he still had that ripped off patch tucked away in his jacket pocket. Shigeo, a child scared of himself, who had probably never met another Psychic, who by the sounds of it was unable to control himself and yet unable to change that _because_ of how scared he was.

His father lying in bed as if asleep, a half empty bottle of pesticide on the sheets beside him and his mother's scream when she walked in a moment later. The old ladies near their home back in Nara whispering that he had probably been taken advantage of _because _he was Psychic, because he wasn't _normal, 'poor little dear that he took after such a father, poor little dear, this could happen to him someday'._

Shigeo was still staring at him.

"I think... I think you'll be better at it than anyone." Kei swallowed the impulse to belittle Psychics in the face of such an earnest question. "But it's hard, Shigeo. I'm... my powers ain't useful. I've been fighting since I was in elementary school, and I've gotten my ass handed to me so many times it isn't even funny anymore. There's always someone stronger, whether they work out or have a power that can beat yours in an instant or just are _better people_. And people are gonna think badly of you, even if you control it and beat them they'll think less of you and you'll get so frustrated you'll _want_ to hurt someone."

Shigeo was hanging off of his every word; Shigeo, who had powers yet was so different from Kei; who had powers that he was _scared _of –probably had been for a long time if they were the reason he tried to stamp down his feelings so quickly. Had he been bullied for not fitting into society? It was obvious, even if that was the case, that he still fiercely wanted to be a part of it.

"Is controlling your powers –not _having_ to use your powers –that important?" Kei asked.

"Y-Yes..."

"...and every shithead who's gonna take advantage of that, what're you gonna do about them?"

"Do?"

"If you wanna be able to get on top of those powers, you can't be a doormat the rest of your life. But you can't-" _Dammit, damn you to every realm of hell there is, Kawachi. _"You can't walk around for the rest of your life thinking everyone around you's an enemy either, 'cause when you're vulnerable you get to thinkin' that way. You get to seein' that everyone's lookin' down on you, the one who can't do the things that they can, and it's a... it's a fucking shitty way to live is what it is, and I should know. So what are you gonna _do _about 'em?"

Shigeo stared at him for several seconds as if stunned into silence, one hand fussing with the bandage over his eye and the other gripping his shirt sleeve tightly. "I-I'm going to -I _want _to... I-I_ wanna _prove 'em _wrong_ about me!"

"Fuckin' right!" Kei said proudly.

Vvv

Kei decided to take just a few more days off of work, not sure exactly when he would be able to return if he went back to Toarushi the day he was supposed to. It was a Sunday, which meant Shigeo would have school off, and he was determined to teach Shigeo a little bit about the world beyond his own eyes while he could –both the one that Kei had resented in Nara and the one that Kei had found in Toarushi. When they had spoken at Kei's home that day, he had tentatively pinned down what he thought Shigeo's problems mainly stemmed from; he was practically as unknowledgeable about his powers as someone who didn't have any, and he was terribly lacking the actual life skills it took to get by in the world without them.

He could tell you the amount of spoons he had accidentally bent in the past month, but had never thought to use his pocket money (or ask his parents) to buy him spoons made out of something different. He told Kei in short bursts about how he had tried to defend himself and his brother with his powers only for them to quickly get out of hand, but had never tried to enrol in martial arts or similar to make it so that he could defend himself on his own. And while he was familiar enough with his own limitations (describing it in percentages when Kei pressed), he had almost no notion of what other ESPers could be capable of –and that was what really worried Kei out of everything, especially once it became apparent just how powerful Shigeo really was.

His father hadn't had even a _fifth_ of Shigeo's power, and look where he had ended up after _they_ decided he wasn't of use to them anymore.

Kei made sure his mother was comfortable when he left around nine, and when she fell asleep again he made sure to leave a note for her where she could easily find it. He didn't actually know what Shigeo's schedule was like beyond the free Sundays like every other kid, so he milled around the shopping district until mid morning when he thought the Kageyamas should be awake.

Shigeo's mother, Kageyama Yuko, was very surprised to see him on her doorstep... and suspicious, regardless of how thankful she had been when first meeting him. Kei didn't hold it against her; she was being logical about an older teen hanging around her son, and the image his useless power presented to her didn't help. But she wasn't acting on any sort of hang ups _about _said power, so she was fine in his mind. And anyway she was more understanding after he had told her about it and that he thought of Shigeo like a little brother, obviously used to stranger things (and perhaps under the impression that Kei and Shigeo had known each other for longer than they had).

Shigeo came down at his mother's call, dressed in a green hoodie with a cow on it, and he stopped dead at the foot of the stairs, mouth agape. Kei took the moment to inspect him for injuries but other than what Kei had treated the day before there wasn't much to see, and he got distracted when Shigeo brightened up and greeted him cheerily.

Now, Kei may have wanted to help Shigeo figure out how to live without relying on his powers, but he wasn't so sure where he should even begin. He agreed to come in and have an early lunch with Shigeo –his brother upstairs convalescing and his father away on business –and Shigeo's mother left them to it at his assurance he could cook, choosing instead to finish laundry in the neighbouring room. When Shigeo muttered something about cooking being especially impressive he finally got an inkling of a good starting point; and by the time they headed out to walk around his mind was going to the cookbooks he had boxed up in the attic that his mother wouldn't be using any time soon.

Vvv

Kei's visit was too short even with the extension, and he was frustrated for it because he quickly realized during their walk that Sunday just _how_ _little_ Shigeo knew about his own situation; he himself had always had an inkling about it, but after his father committed suicide he had thrown himself into finding out as much as he could, as if to spite the dismissive. His second order of business then, after the cookbooks but before helping Shigeo to learn how to support himself, was to get him up to speed.

Shigeo was by no means a frustrating kid to hang around, if Kei was going to be honest. The three remaining days he was around Kei would pick him up after school, they would drop his things off at his home and then the two of them would set off to walk around this part of Seasoning City, having conversations that never started the same but usually came back to Psychics. Once they got into it Shigeo would focus in completely and absorb whatever Kei told him or suggested he read; except if it had anything at all to do with numbers, which the kid was absolutely atrocious at dealing with. Shigeo was clumsy but he wasn't stupid, had a hard time reading the atmosphere but he had a good heart, and seemed to be eager to face whatever Kei threw his way. Altogether Kei didn't regret encouraging him –even if he feared that due to the amount of problems Shigeo needed to work through, he might just decide to give up when it got too difficult.

But Shigeo kept saying that he would like it if Kei came back occasionally to see him, and more and more little things he noticed about Shigeo showed him that the kid would _never_ quit if he could help it; if anything had gone differently he might have locked himself up in his own mind in the face of his overwhelming power, but as of now he wasn't in danger of that, and was soaking up Kei's perspective on the world like a sponge. Whether it was the statistics on the amount of Psychics involved in organized crime, conjecture about why ESPers were more common in Toarushi and certain other places, or basic all around self defence manoeuvres he could grasp at his age (eleven, in fact), by the end of Kei's stay Shigeo was hooked and would learn more on his own even without Kei's presence.

And Kei... well, he had grown attached to the kid, only hastened by the fact that his new title of 'Kei-aniki' had been at first surprising and then endearing, and Kawachi's words were still swimming in his skull whenever he so much as _thought_ of severing this connection after he left. It was a frankly terrifying sort of feeling –not since he had made friends with Kenichirou and Kenshou had he been this fond of someone, and he had never thought of anyone like a little brother before Shigeo came along. He had always scoffed at his peers or upperclassmen when they mentioned either the respect they held for their older brothers or being a big brother themselves, but now he was beginning to sympathize.

Eventually though, Kei did have to leave again, due back at work in a couple of days and needing _something_ of a good night's sleep before his shift. He met Shigeo's father for the first time when he picked Shigeo up to take him out for Oden that evening; Kageyama Toshio was a soft spoken, reedy man who thanked Kei for helping his sons while he was gone and sent them on their way with little fanfare. Kei still had yet to meet Shigeo's younger brother officially, although Shigeo did tell him about Ritsu whenever they weren't talking about Psychics, and it sat a little off in his gut that even now that he was awake the youngest Kageyama was still avoiding his brother.

They went to a cheap roadside Oden stand, one that Kei frequented whenever he came back home for longer than a day –it was cozy and warm and the owner was this great burly man who liked to tell his customers about his eleven grandchildren (one more on the way now). It was almost funny how Shigeo had to sit seiza on the bench in order to actually be tall enough to reach his food, and Kei had a good time lightly teasing Shigeo for it while they waited for their order.

"So, those cookbooks are yours now, no need to worry about me taking them back," Kei assured, taking a sip of the –_still too hot!_ "Fuck! Uh, and that's pretty much what you should focus on to start. Learning how to cook is important."

"Can I... try to do other things? Without them, I mean?" Shigeo asked, his power briefly sparking like he was going to use it to cool his food down before he gave a little gasp and stopped. "I already do some things on my own. I walk everywhere and write without them, stuff like that."

Kei nodded. "Yeah, but Shigeo, you're going to _have _to let loose with your powers as well." He saw the little flinch Shigeo made. "I know it's scary, but it's healthy. Psychic power is like... another limb, sort of, but opposite."

"Huh?"

"Ah, I'm not explaining it very well." Kei sighed and tried to remember how his father had said it, pushing away the old pain at the thought of him. "When you keep using your arms, your muscles get stronger, and if you use them less they get weaker, right? And a weak limb isn't good for you, because it could break easier." Shigeo nodded, faced screwed up in thought. "If Psychic powers are used more, they actually become tamer. You're training them and the more you do, the easier it is to control them. If you lock them up or whatever, they fester and bubble and get so unwieldy that eventually –well, you get an 'explosion'. Guess which one's healthier?"

"...using them." Shigeo grumbled, but he didn't look as unhappy about it.

"I'll look into good ways you could exercise them while I'm in Toarushi, okay? I know a few guys who have hard to control powers, and we'll talk about it again when I come back." Kei scuffed at Shigeo's hair again –it was quickly becoming a habit because whenever he did it, Shigeo always lost a little bit of his stoicness. "Until then, just look at the cookbooks. And maybe practice your punches so those shitbirds Honda and Onigawara won't be able to get the drop on you."

Vvv

Kei left that Thursday morning, wanting to be in Toarushi in the afternoon to catch up with Kenshou and Kenichirou after his disappearing act. He had seen Shigeo off the last night and had been assured that the boy was going to see him off at the train station when the time came –it was before school began at least, but Shigeo would have to wake up mighty early to meet him. Kei milled around near the benches outside, sneaking a quick cigarette before he would be forced to pack them away for the trip, and around twenty minutes before he was due to board he finally saw Shigeo approaching.

"Kei-aniki, I'm-I'm here!" Shigeo greeted, walking up with a small paper bag swinging from his hand. Kei smiled slightly and stood, scuffing roughly at the kid's bowl cut when he got close enough for him to reach; Shigeo huffed and turned red under Kei's attention, but he let out a little giggle too, betraying that he actually liked it. "Stop or I _w-won't_ give you your present."

"I yield!" Shigeo smiled when he took a step back, and then hummed nervously, abruptly paling as he all but shoved the little bag into Kei's chest.

Inside was a chain, sturdy and silver with clips on each end and a charm on one link of a rabbit –he was surprised that Shigeo knew it was his favourite animal, especially with how little the kid seemed to pick up on his surroundings. Shigeo stammered out that it was to clip his wallet into his pocket so that no one could steal it, and so Kei did just that, thanking the younger boy profusely if only to see him fluster about afterwards.

"You're gonna be gone awhile," Shigeo said once he had settled and sat with Kei on the bench, fiddling with the ends of his sleeves. "Do you think I... c-could manage to be better with my powers by the next time you come back?"

"Hey, c'mon now ya lil' shit." Kei teased, again ruffling Shigeo's hair though this time he was gentler about it. "Much guts as you got, you'll be able to punch any two-bit bully out with your _fists_ by the time I get back to Toarushi today! I'll only be gone a couple of months tops anyhows..." Kei was grateful that while Shigeo sniffled something fierce, he didn't cry –and even more grateful that no one who knew him from Toarushi was around to see him like this. "...doesn't matter if you do or don't. What kinda big brother would I be if I cared about all that?"

Vvv

Himekawa Kei was sixteen by two and a half weeks when he and his friends pissed off the wrong guy in the worst way possible and nearly got themselves killed by the bloodiest Yakuza group in town.

Kei didn't know why they decided to hold off on killing them, and neither he nor Kenshou or Kenichirou were willing to stick around to find out if the ultimatum they'd been issued would be rescinded. Kenichirou had stolen his uncle's car, Kenshou had cleared out their little apartment and Kei had picked the destination –a town on the ocean where they could lay low and Kei knew a senpai of his would be able to put in a word with the local Yakuza to take them in. Then they had gotten the hell out of dodge before the Kyoukusei-kai could change their minds, and it was only when they were halfway to Tsuchiura and their adrenaline had run dry that they stopped to figure out what to do next.

Kenichirou had no family other than his uncle, and the bastard had always been a shitty alcoholic –they would ditch the car and take the train the last leg of the journey, and hopefully his uncle wouldn't sic the cops on them. Kenshou's family made having none the better option, and as long as he kept his head down he would be able to live the way he wanted –especially when both Kei and Kenichirou were willing to kill if _any_ of them tried to approach him. It used to only be Kei's mother, but now he had Shigeo to think about, and if he stretched it then the rest of the Kageyamas as well. Kenichirou and Kenshou made it clear that they would follow him wherever he wanted to go –that they had nowhere _else_ to go –and so halfway to Tsuchiura they took a side road and went back to Seasoning City so that Kei could say goodbye.

While Kenichirou called up Hyun-Ki's junkyard to get rid of the car and Kenshou busied himself with packing up their belongings into a few duffel bags he had bought, Kei went to see his mother. There was nothing he could say to calm her after he explained what they had gotten themselves into; that he couldn't go back to Toarushi or risk getting killed, that he couldn't stay with her or _she_ might get mixed up in it all with how far the Kyoukusei-kai's influence spread. It was a long time before she finally passed out from exhaustion and stress, and Kei left the house while she slept, leaving nothing but a note that promised he _would_ come back when he could.

Shigeo's house was quiet, but he could tell that the family was home by the lights on in the upstairs bedroom and kitchen windows. He almost hesitated to press the bell, but he knew that if he didn't tell Shigeo then the kid would worry himself to death, especially if he somehow heard the story second-hand from someone else. It was Shigeo's mother who opened the door when he finally did ring their bell, and she looked shocked to see him for a few moments before she noticed his injuries and her forehead creased.

"Can I talk to Shigeo please, Obasan?" Kei asked as politely as he could, hating the rasp in his voice from crying with his mother.

"...I'll get him, just a minute." She eventually said, closing the door so she could go back into the house. Kei took a step or two back from the entrance so he could brace himself a little for whatever reaction Shigeo would have to seeing him –and he froze in surprise when the kid finally opened the door and actually _beamed_ at the sight of him.

Shigeo's right hand was bandaged up, he had a bruise blooming on the cheek underneath the eye that had been a purple black so long ago, and his arms were scuffed up, covered in small half healed scrapes like he'd had a battle with a brick wall and not come out of it better off. But it was his expression that made Kei really pull up short –he was smiling, and he looked less pale and there was none of that closed off deadness to him that Kei had been trying to curb –and when he trotted forward his hand was cradled close to his chest but otherwise it seemed as if he didn't even notice his injuries.

"Kei-aniki!" He stopped in front of Kei and grinned, and now that he was used to it the fondness Kei felt wasn't so distracting anymore. "I-I've almost been doing it! I've been thinking about what you said, and I've s-stopped using my power for some things that I used to think I _needed_ them for!" If he'd had one Shigeo's tail would have been wagging a mile a minute, and as it was he already gave off the impression of a puppy eagerly waiting for praise. "Honda-kun is still mad about his brother, and I got hurt which is bad, but I still tried! I managed to kick Onigawara-kun right where it hurts like you taught me and got away!"

Kei felt something seize in his chest at the eager, amazed way Shigeo was talking about this, the way he looked up to him when they had only known each other barely a few days. He had always thought that maybe Shigeo wouldn't take what he said to heart, or maybe he would realize that Kei wasn't all that great and he should find someone else to teach him the skills he so desperately wanted.

"K-Kei-aniki?" Kei had stepped back and covered his mouth, and Shigeo seemed to be working on reading the atmosphere as well because he could obviously tell that something was wrong.

"Shigeo-kun, that's –that's great." He swallowed thickly. "Listen, there's something I... Shigeo, _I_ _messed_ _up_."

Shigeo lost the happy gleam about him, and his typical stoic face managed to bring another level of seriousness to the topic, tinged with apprehension. Kei scrubbed at his face with his hands and let out a little noise of frustration –he wished that he hadn't been so reckless, so careless, so _stupid_.

"Me and my friends, we're being targeted by Yakuza right now, because of something we did," Shigeo sucked in a startled breath, and a hysterical laugh briefly escaped Kei before he forced himself to stop. "If we go back to Toarushi we're dead, if we stay here my mom ..._and_ _you_ could get involved. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I wanted to try and be a big brother to you but I can't _be_ _here_. I can't come back until everything blows over."

"You could go to the police," Shigeo whispered, voice wavering; Kei shook his head.

"That would only make it worse, not just for me," Kei looked at the shorter boy and wanted to hit something –he looked ready to cry, and the potted plant on the step was shaking like there was a high wind. He stepped forward and scuffed up Shigeo's hair to try and put him at ease, but that only made it worse, actually forcing a few tears out of the younger ESPer. Kei quietly pressed an envelope into Shigeo's hands and grasped his shoulder.

"Hey, look at me." Kei urged, and Shigeo hiccoughed but complied. "Don't make yourself sick. There's no way I'll die from something like this, Shigeo. I promise I'll come and see you as soon as I can, so I expect you to do your best while your b-big brother's gone, okay?" Shigeo nodded earnestly, wiping at his tears roughly, heedless to the bruise on his cheek. "Take care of the people you love, but don't think asking for help is wrong; I do it all the time. You should visit Toarushi so you can see it for yourself,I know you'll like it there, but... don't tell anyone you're related to me, just in case. And –and you're going to be very vulnerable while you learn to do everything without your powers, but don't see _everyone_ as an enemy, okay?"

"O-Okay." Shigeo sniffed, and it really felt like Kei was saying goodbye on his deathbed. Shigeo hugged him just a little too tight when he finally had to leave –Psychic powers couldn't always be controlled –and Kei ran down the street like a coward. But he swore that he wasn't going to come back to his mother and Shigeo in a body bag, so until the Kyoukusei-kai decided that they were off the hook, he would have to keep that promise.

Vvv


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, Shigeo, I forgot to ask, what did Kei-kun need the other day? He wasn't here for very long..."

It was Sunday, three days after Kei had shown up in the late evening and left like the Shinigami was nipping at his heels. Shigeo forced himself not to sniffle at the reminder, and glanced up from his cereal; Kaa-san was looking at him, Tou-san was picking at a piece of egg, and Ritsu was silently staring at his plate.

"Did Kei-kun come over? Good lad, good lad," Tou-san said absently. "Shame his psychic power makes so much trouble for him."

Shigeo himself wasn't affected by it, so he just nodded along. "Um, something bad happened. Aniki has to go live somewhere else until –um, well, for a while."

"I'm sorry to hear that, dear," Kaa-san reached over and smoothed his hair down a little. "I know you two were close."

"...Mhm," Shigeo scooped up another mouthful of cereal, still fascinated by the wooden spoon that for some reason his powers didn't bend or break. He thought about the envelope Kei had pushed into his hands, and the suggestions listed within that he was going to have to work through sooner rather than later. "But... he said he'd come back, one day." Kaa-san nodded with a faint smile on her face, and across from him Ritsu clenched his fists tight. "Oh, uh, Kaa-san, can I go to the park today? Since there's no school?"

"Just bring Ritsu along," she said, as if Shigeo needed the suggestion when he was still trying to get his brother to talk to him, but Ritsu frowned slightly.

"I don't wanna go."

Their parents blinked and looked at the two of them –Tou-san's forehead creased a little as he chewed on his rice. "Well... alright, Ritsu. Shigeo, if you still go to the park be back by four o'clock, okay?"

"Yes, Tou-san."

Discouraged at Ritsu's rebuke, Shigeo nevertheless went out after lunch. Spring was tentatively making its strides into the winter chill, and there were more people out walking than he'd seen the past few weeks. Shigeo paused at the intersection closest to the park and looked down at the letter, at the neatly written address close to the end of Kei's parting words, and with a deep breath he turned and started walking down the opposite street.

He vaguely remembered the house from when Kei had brought him there to treat his black eye, but approaching it on his own was a bit more nerve wracking than he'd anticipated. But he'd promised Kei, he'd _promised _that he'd prove everyone wrong about him, and he wasn't going to be the person who couldn't do anything because he was scared. So he looked under the flower pot on the porch and found the key, and quietly let himself into the house, and looked around at the eerie, silent place nervously but determined.

Shigeo took the stairs with socked feet, and almost had to remind himself to breath the silence was so thick. The amount of accumulated dirt and grime around the corners and the trash strewn about the hall was enough to let Shigeo know that the relative cleanliness he'd seen in the kitchen was all Kei's doing –the second floor was dark and still, and Shigeo only managed to make himself move forward through sheer force of will.

There was a basket of laundry next to an open door –it was clean, but hadn't been folded and by the lack of a detergent smell had either been sitting there for awhile or hadn't been washed with it in the first place. When Shigeo peeked into the room, he jumped at the sunken eyes staring at him from the futon, set in the face of a pale, thin woman with Kei's nose and hair colour. But she didn't say anything, and when Shigeo looked closer he saw that her hair was stuck to her forehead with sweat and her eyes were glassy –she was _sick._

"...Himekawa-san?" he asked tentatively, and she blinked slowly at him. Her hands gripped the blanket over her briefly before they went slack like she didn't have the strength to do even that much.

"...Who...?" her voice was throaty and cracked along the edges, and when she took a breath it rattled in her chest. "In my... house..."

"Um, Himekawa-san, I'm –I'm Shigeo," he edged into the room and folded to his knees close enough that she didn't have to strain to look at him, but far enough away that she didn't get nervous. _He _always got nervous whenever people came near him when he was sick, even if it was his family. "Kei-aniki, he asked me to check on you."

"Kei... you know... my Kei?" she squinted at him, and it made her look much older than Shigeo thought she was with how her skin stretched. "Too... tiny..."

"He called me his li-little brother. But –but he had to leave." Shigeo sniffed a bit and swallowed to try and keep it down. "He wanted you to-to be okay, Hime-Himekawa-san."

"He's... so good to me..." Kei's mother sagged back into her pillow and closed her eyes. "Why did he... have to... to take after his father...?"

Shigeo sniffled again, and Kei's mother made a noise like she was in pain –she squeezed her eyes closed but tears still escaped them, and she didn't attempt to wipe them away even as they dropped off her cheeks and began to wet her hair and the pillow underneath. Shigeo clenched his hands tightly on his knees and tried not to let the lump in his throat grow, but it was difficult.

"Kei-aniki asked me –he asked me to check on you. I know you-you have a hard time, Himekawa-san," Shigeo explained, anything to distract him from his distress. "So-So while K-Kei-aniki's gone, I'm g-going to help you. Any-Anything you need."

"I... I _need _my Kei back..." she sobbed, but her hand reached out, trembling, and held fast when Shigeo grabbed it with both of his. "That stupid boy... leaving us... leaving _me..._"

Kana-obasan, as she eventually told him to call her, passed out from exhaustion not long after that. Despite his promise, Shigeo didn't know what needed to be done at _all_, so he settled for making sure there wasn't anything going bad in the fridge nor that there was too much garbage piling up before he left for home. He left a note and a glass of water on the low table in Kei's mother's room and promised to stop by after school the next day.

It could be said that, following that point, Shigeo's life was measured in the times he was fighting and the times he was helping.

The first time Shigeo ever started a fight it was a month after Kei had left town and a boy from the next class over had teased Tsubomi until she cried. Since the high school boys it was the first time Shigeo really felt close to an explosion, but he managed to hold it in, barely, until he reached Hyun-Ki's junkyard. Kei had made good on his promise to arrange an outlet for his powers with someone he trusted, and while Kim Hyun-Ki had been a little wary of letting a kid do dangerous work like crushing cars, Shigeo had explained his situation and the man had acquiesced, although he'd made it a point to meet with Shigeo's parents about it. Shigeo managed to get through three days worth of car crushing and junk sorting before he felt settled; when he approached that boy after school with his powers pleasantly low and punched him square in the mouth, Shigeo felt satisfied and not much else.

His mother fussed over his black eye when he got home later that afternoon, but even after he told her why he did it she didn't scold him. Instead she rubbed cream on his bruises and bandaged his scrapes and made him promise her something; if he was going to start acting like his older brother, she wanted two things.

"First, you have to be home to sleep, to eat breakfast with us, and let me stop you if you go too far. I know you're just trying to help others, Shigeo, like Kei-kun helped you, but you're still my baby. So I want you to trust me and tell me the truth." Shigeo had sniffed and cried, and nodded, and sorely missed Kei as his mother hugged him around the shoulders. "And second, _never_ get involved with the people who made Kei-kun have to leave. I could bear anything else."

Shigeo had let his mother rock him for a few minutes and thought very hard about that, before he agreed and told her firmly she never had to worry about that.

"Because I hate Yakuza," he explained, and that was that.

(Subconsciously, Yuko knew there were things she couldn't help her son come to terms with, even though she desperately wanted to. Liking a girl, having psychic powers, and losing someone like Kei-kun were the biggest of those things.)

Two weeks later, Shigeo let himself into the Himekawa home and found Kana-obasan awake and in the kitchen –she was sitting at the kitchen table staring blankly into a cup of water, but she was up all the same. Shigeo greeted her and surveyed the damage; a few dishes piled up, the garbage needed emptying and Obasan had spilled something and not had the energy to clean it up. As he shuffled around she didn't move an inch, but the moment he came back into the kitchen after placing the bag of trash in the outside bin, she sobbed.

Shigeo was by her side in an instant, a damp cloth in one hand and the other grasping hers. Kana-obasan hunched over on herself and cried, gasping out all of her fears at the same time about what had happened to Kei over the last month and a half. There had been no correspondence between them, wherever he was, and it was tearing his mother up from the inside even though she knew it would be dangerous for Kei to call. Shigeo cried a bit alongside her and when her arms couldn't lift up on their own he wiped off her face like he used to do to Ritsu; when she collected herself, she hugged him and apologized and told him Kei would be proud of him, and Shigeo cried a little harder.

Shigeo and Ritsu had their first fight three months after that. It was early in the morning near to the end of the school year and Ritsu had been under the weather for a few days –not enough to keep him home, so their mother asked Shigeo to walk Ritsu to school, just in case, and of course Shigeo had agreed immediately.

They had walked only two blocks together when Ritsu stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and frowned deeply at the pavement in front of him. Shigeo paused and waited for his brother to start moving again, and then Ritsu spoke in a wavering voice.

"I'm... going this way," he said, and pointed at a street up ahead that would bring him to Salt Elementary a few minutes later than if they continued on straight. Shigeo nodded in understanding.

"Okay, let's go."

"I'm going by myself," Ritsu blurted, and his cheeks flushed red.

Shigeo turned to look at his younger brother quizzically. "Kaa-san wants me to make sure you get to school, so I have to go with you." He took a step closer to grab his brother's hand and froze when Ritsu leaned away.

"I don't care, I'm _fine_," he insisted; he was clutching the straps of his backpack very tightly. "I don't need you to walk me."

_70%_

"Kaa-san _said_ I have to. You're _sick,_" Shigeo's chest felt tight and he tried to remember what Kei had told him, but his head was quickly filling up with static. "Ritsu-"

"I don't _want _you to walk me!" Ritsu exclaimed. "I've been doing it this whole time! Ever since you met that bad kid-"

"Don't talk about Kei-aniki like that!" Shigeo protested, the tight feeling moving to somewhere behind his eyes. "You never even met him!"

"I don't wanna meet someone who does _bad stuff!_" Ritsu's face was completely red now, and he'd taken a step back. "He made _you_ bad! You beat up Marui-kun!"

"Marui-kun called Kawaki-kun something so bad he started crying!"

(After the high schoolers, Ritsu spent a week at home recovering from a fever and he always pretended he was asleep when Shigeo checked on him; he was scared of that brief glimpse of _something_ under his brother's skin. He thought he would get over it, but then he kept leaving the house for school earlier than Shigeo and at the kitchen table he couldn't make himself speak. So he stewed. Maybe it was fright at first, but whatever it was now hadn't gone away.)

"That doesn't mean you can hurt him!"

"He hurt Kawaki-kun first! I have to take care of the people around me!"

_90%_

This was wrong, all wrong. Shigeo hadn't meant to make Ritsu upset, hadn't meant to start yelling back; but Ritsu just didn't _understand_. Kei-aniki had helped them and then taught Shigeo how to stand up for himself, and he said that Shigeo _had_ to take care of the people in his life! If Shigeo wanted to do that without relying on his psychic powers, then he had to use what he had left.

Ritsu reeled back like Shigeo had swung at him. "You didn't take care of _me!_" he shot back, and when he started crying a second later it hit Shigeo like a physical pain. "S-Stupid Sh-Sh-Shigeo! I-I –I h-_hate _you! Leave me _alone_!"

"_Ritsu!_"

Shigeo stared, aghast, as Ritsu sprinted away from him, and when he tried to follow a second later his brother was nowhere to be seen. He let out a distressed, high pitched noise in the back of his throat and wrapped his arms around his stomach, then backed into the wall of the nearest building; Ritsu's words echoed in his head over and over.

A great CRACK! sounded, and when he looked down there was a long fissure in the asphalt of the road, exposing the packed dirt underneath. Shigeo made another helpless noise when he jerked his foot away and another crack appeared in a different direction, splintering this way and that to look like the branches of a tree.

"Oh no, oh no, no, no, _stop!_" Shigeo pleaded and kept as still as possible. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –nnn, Kei-aniki, how am I supposed to _stop?!_"

But of course, no one answered him. Shigeo remained frozen on the little side street for over an hour, afraid that if he moved the whole street would split in two. When people started walking nearby he finally got up the courage to take a step, and then another, and then he got to running –he ran all the way to the forest on the south side of town. It was the first time Shigeo would ever skip school, although in the years to come it wasn't what Shigeo would remember that day for.

It was the first time he broke his promise to his mother, as well. But just that one time, he couldn't bring himself to feel bad about it.

Then, there was Onigawara Tenga.

Ever since Shigeo had given Honda a what-for, the older boy hadn't come near him –Onigawara, on the other hand, had eventually taken Shigeo's sudden spine as some sort of _challenge_. It quickly came to be that, not long after Shigeo and Ritsu's falling out, you could regularly see Shigeo walk home alone from school only to be stopped and challenged by Onigawara.

Most of the time Shigeo turned him down. Most of the time Shigeo was sad and tired; drained from using his powers at the junkyard or from helping Kana-obasan on one of her bad days, and all he wanted to do was get home. Even if it was awkward and stilted now at the dinner table with the fast-widening rift between him and his brother that he wasn't sure how to _fix._

But, on occasion, Shigeo would spot Onigawara approaching him and his blood would boil, and the two of them would start trading punches within minutes. Most of those times they parted ways not even a half hour later, bumped and bruised but a content sort of aching, and that would be that.

It was the first –and only –time they got caught that things changed between them.

Shigeo's parents and Onigawara's grandmother were called into the Koban where the two scuffed up boys were sitting sullenly next to one another, a single officer at the desk simultaneously watching them and going through his paperwork. The adults arrived at nearly the same time, greeted each other outside before they went inside to collect their errant youth; the officer welcomed them and proceeded to outline the situation.

"We received reports of two minors fighting nearby," he said, watching the two of them for any reaction. "When we responded, we found these two lying on the ground, in this condition."

"Wait, so you didn't catch them fighting?" Tou-san asked calmy, making the officer turn a little red.

"They match descriptions given," he said.

"Shigeo, honey, what happened?" Kaa-san tried. "Why don't you and... Onigawara-kun tell us what you were doing?"

"Tenga, tell us," Onigawara's grandmother urged. "It's alright dear, don't be nervous."

For a moment, Shigeo's and Onigawara's eyes met, and in that instant they knew that if they wanted to, they could ruin the other boy's life. While fighting wasn't exactly taken very seriously in a court of law for minors, there would be serious repercussions to a police investigation on a school and social level. At best, it would linger on their records until they reached their majority and could influence the schools they wanted to go to or the clubs they were interested in or _anything._

"Nothing happened," Shigeo said first, with the old neutral expression he used to pull to calm his powers down. "I don't know who was fighting. We were at that park on a race."

"Son, you both match the descriptions we received," the officer tried to remind him in a stern voice. "The sooner you tell the truth, the better things will be."

"I'm not lying," Shigeo said seriously. "We weren't doing anything."

The adults all turned to Onigawara, who was looking at Shigeo in surprise –he had been sure that if either of them was going to be thrown under the bus it would be him, since he had bullied Shigeo when they were younger. He wouldn't have expected the younger boy to cover for him like this, especially not when there was the chance that Onigawara could turn it all back on him without a second thought.

"Yeah, I dunno what he's talking about," Onigawara said, and before anyone could take that the wrong way he pointed at the policeman. "We were lying down tired after racing, and he comes in and tells us we were fighting! We weren't doing nothing!"

Shigeo's mother turned to the officer with a smile on her face that didn't reach her eyes.

"What, exactly, do the descriptions our kids supposedly match actually _say_, Officer?"

After a week had passed and things returned to normal, Shigeo and Onigawara left school at the same time and walked out into the clearing in the forest Shigeo had made when his powers went haywire, and they had begun fighting again.

But after, when they were on the ground completely spent and gasping for air, they didn't go their separate ways, content to meet another day. This time Onigawara helped Shigeo stand up, and the pair of them hobbled back down the hill together; roughed up and wincing, but thinking to themselves that it was nice to have someone who could watch their back.

And it was a year following Kei's abrupt departure that Shigeo was out walking in the market district in the early afternoon, school out on a half day and Onigawara sick, so not much else to do but go to check on Kana-obasan in a few hours. It was here that he was distracted taking a corner, and it was here that the preclude to the story ends; with Shigeo knocked to the ground.

"Oh, it's a kid," someone said from above him, and Shigeo looked up.

The two men in front of him both wore sunglasses, while the short one was dressed in a green bosozoku jumpsuit and the taller one was clad in a dark suit with a garishly coloured undershirt. The first had a shaved head and tattoos peeking out from under his collar, the other had scars and a missing pinkie. They were talking loudly, they were looming over Shigeo, whether to see if he was okay or intimidate him he never found out –because Shigeo saw red when the clues clicked into place in his brain.

They were _Yakuza._

"Get –_away _–from –me!" Shigeo shouted, and he lashed out with his foot to catch the shorter one in the knee. The man cursed in pain and Shigeo felt a brief stab of satisfaction before a hand grabbed his collar and yanked him up to his toes.

"Calm down you shitty brat!" The tall one sneered.

"Lemme go you –you –Yakuza trash!" Shigeo spat, the rarity of his anger overwhelming him –but he didn't feel his powers so much as _twitch_ –until the one holding him up swung and the blinding pain in his cheek stunned him into silence.

"Little punk. They're getting younger and younger," the tall one said, and unceremoniously dropped Shigeo like a sack of rocks. "C'mon, Ryusui, I'm not into fighting toddlers."

"Shitty kid gave me a bruise, I swear..." the short one mumbled, but he followed his companion away even so.

_65%_

Shigeo sat there on the pavement and scrubbed his angry, hateful tears away, wishing he was strong enough to fight back. Maybe if he was, stupid Yakuza couldn't treat people like dirt, maybe he could've helped Kei-aniki somehow, maybe he wouldn't feel so _bad _about attacking that man when he hadn't even _done _anything and he could just _hate him _like he was supposed to. Maybe he wouldn't be so _useless._

"Oh, man, hey kid, are you okay?" a new voice asked, just a little above him and to the right. Shigeo peeked and saw that it was an orange-haired man in a pink dress shirt and grey slacks who was kneeling next to him, a concerned expression on a tired face.

Shigeo tried to sniff his tears away so he could answer, but the man had evidently already come to a decision –he said a quiet 'wait here' and stood up to his full height, and then he marched off after the two Yakuza members.

Shigeo watched, mystified, as the man tapped the Yakuza on the shoulders and stood back as they turned and loomed over him, too. He said a few somethings accompanied by wild gestures with his arms and pointed once to Shigeo, and then when the Yakuza began yelling hotly he pointed near his chest, or maybe just at himself. Regardless of what it was, the two gangsters paled, straightened, and spoke very rapidly before they bowed in both the man's and in Shigeo's direction before they hightailed it around the corner and out of sight.

"Morons," he man muttered when he got back to Shigeo. "Come on, kid, my office is just next door. I'll get you a cold compress and some tea."

"...uhm, okay? Thanks, mister." Shigeo said hesitantly.

_25%_

It was a very tiny office, Shigeo noted when he followed the man through the door. There were bookshelves and a couch, a coffee table and a desk with a computer, and then two other doors, one with 'employees only' and the second with the word 'studio' on the glass. There were a few potted plants scattered around, and then a small kitchen with a sink and a hot plate underneath a cupboard with a microwave, and all of that next to a third, thinner door with W.C. painted on the wood.

Shigeo sat down on the couch while the stranger put some water on and dug through his small fridge for a compress, which he handed Shigeo along with a towel before he went to his cupboard for teabags and mugs. As he watched him with the cool seeping into his cheek, Shigeo noticed that the man had a scar that twisted a corner of his mouth up into a perpetual smirk, and then another up from his cheekbone into his hairline, like whatever had made it had jumped a bit.

"This is your... office, mister?" Shigeo asked.

The man nodded absently, a hand fluttering out from his hip to his forehead and out into the space next to him in the span of a second.

"Ah, right, pardon my manners!" he placed a mug he'd procured onto the counter and went to his desk, where he plucked a business card off a little stand and presented it to Shigeo with a flourish. IT was simple and printed on thin cardstock, and as Shigeo read it the man recited the information. "Reigen Arataka, the 21st century's greatest psychic investigator, at your service! Exorcisms are only on Saturdays. Pardon the office, I've been away for a few days on a case..."

Shigeo frowned up at him. "So you investigate Psychics?" he asked, and didn't know how he felt when Reigen shook his head.

"Well –that is, I suppose I _could _–but I mean, I _am_ the best investigator there is, I simply also happen to be Psychic!" Reigen flung his hand out again dramatically, but it was dampened when he faltered and glanced at his laptop. "Wait, is _that_ why I still only get ghost cases...? ANYWAY! Welcome to Spirits and Such Investigations! Keep us in mind if you know anyone who might require some help looking into things."

"Oh..." Shigeo muttered, and then accepted the cup of tea. His mind swirled on Kei and all the things he'd told him about the ESPers his father had worked for, and then the way Reigen had made the Yakuza turn tail and run, and he had an idea. "Reigen-san?"

"Hm? What's up kid?"

"Could _I _hire you to look into a Psychic?"

/


End file.
